The invention relates to a projectile charge of smoke cups, which are arranged stacked one above the other in the shell jacket in discharging direction. The smoke cups consist of a closed metal case with a therein-housed smoke composition comprising hexachloroethane, zinc oxide and metal powder. The smoke cups rest one upon another with total surface contact, and the component parts of each cup case consist of the same material, the supporting components having identical strength and the smoke composition charge fully filling out the cases. The metal cases consist of two coaxial tubes which form between themselves an annular chamber for the smoke composition, which chamber is covered on both sides through annular lids. The smoke composition is highly compressed with a pressure of at least 1300 kp/cm.sup.2 [91 PSI] and is thus self-supporting in itself. There is finally provided a fuse arrangement of three priming cartridges, which are embedded in the smoke composition charge symmetrically to the center line of the smoke cup, and the spacing between each priming cartridge and the inner tube is 5 to 10 mm.
In the projectile charge of copending application Ser. No. 752,637, "Smoke Projectile Charge and Process For its Manufacture", filed Dec. 8, 1976 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,664 issued Feb. 5, 1980, the manufacturing of the smoke cup is carried out in that smoke composition and detonating charge, that is, priming cartridges, are jointly compressed into a block of uniform compression. To be sure, the detonation process of smoke composition charges manufactured in this manner is satisfactory, but the manufacturing process itself presents certain difficulties; for one, it is comparatively intricate, and for the other--and this is the more important point--it is not without danger because of the high pressures applied the danger of self-ignition of the detonation composition and thereby of a spontaneous reaction of the smoke composition cannot be excluded.
An object of the present invention is therefore to further develop projectile charges in accordance with above-cited U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,664 in such a way that the manufacturing of the smoke cups becomes simple and totally safe, and that the detonation process is not adversely affected.